Where Has the Time Gone?

It's been ages since I've posted anything - I'm sure everyone has quit looking by now only because there is never anything new to read. But come back! I've got tons of pictures!

A couple weeks after Nick and Michelle's visit, and my subsequent trip to New Hampshire to see Jeff and Amanda and baby Jacob, we had more visitors - Mom and cousins Pam and Cheryl. Look Pam and Cheryl...you're on the blog! We had a fabulous visit with them...they all managed to cram in our tiny apartment, and it felt like a huge sleepover every night, with wall-to-wall beds, literally. Poor Luke was the only boy all weekend, but he had such a great time. The gals wanted to see "everything" since it was their first trip to NYC, so we did our best to show them everything. I think we wore them out. Our weekend started with breakfast at my favorite place for pancakes and all things a.m. - Clinton Street Baking Company. Then we explored downtown Manhattan, including Battery Park, saw the Statue from a distance (too cold for the boat ride), made our way back to the apartment because I was a bad New Yorker and didn't dress warmly enough, explored Grand Central, Times Square at night, Empire State building, Central Park, Yankee Stadium, and the list goes on.

At the Charging Bull statue, with a gazillion random other people.

All of the other pics from that weekend are on Mom's camera, so I'll have to wait until she emails them to me. Sorry guys!

During class that week, we worked on cakes. I hate cakes. I'm not good at them. I don't want to make cakes for a living. But here are some examples of my work:

Piping with Royal Icing is so difficult! But my marzipan strawberries are fabulous!

Marzipan covered cake with fondant decorations

Black Forest Cake

Rolled fondant covered cake - chocolate cake with pistachio cream - delish!

Birthday cake for a one-year-old...circus theme with chocolate cake and peanut butter buttercream. The sides of the cake were a tent, but chef cut into it, so it lost the opening of the tent which made it make sense.

Day 1 of our chocolate unit - coating real lemon leaves with tempered chocolate and then peeling the leaf off to leave these pretty little things.

Box made out of chocolate - dumb project

But the good part - we filled it with these orange flavored truffles

Candy Stand project - we had to make the entire thing out of chocolate and put candies in it, hoping that it was built well enough to stay standing. Below are more pictures of some projects by classmates.

My candy stand again, filled with candy

Our wall of fame - everyone had to make a brick out of chocolate with our initials on it.

Queen of Sheba cake